The Johto Legacy: Redacted
by The Wizard388
Summary: Follow the story of four remarkable kids known as Gold, Lyra, Crystal, and Silver as they venture forth into Johto as it's on the verge of the most significant event in the region's history as the remnants of Team Rocket resurface after years of hiding. This is a rewrite of my previous story "The Johto Legacy Soul Silver". Contains HeartSoulshipping and SpecialJewelshipping.
1. Prologue

**Authors note:**

 **Hello, if you were a fan of my previous story The Johto Legacy Soul Silver, you may be a tad upset to hear that I am dropping production on that current version of my story. I was caught up with my life in college during the later chapters, and I never found the time nor inspiration to continue writing it while I worked toward my degree. I was also slightly upset with the quality of the writing in general and felt that I had some rather flat characters (Namely Lyra and Cyrstal) and had story threads that were either going nowhere or ones I wanted to include, but the themes weren't properly set up in earlier chapters to incorporate them. In the end, I wrote a novel's worth of material and found it too daunting to rework my 50+ chapters to make my story work the way I wanted.**

 **However having recently graduated and got involved in the new Sun and Moon games, I found my inspiration once more. I can't work on something for 3+ years and not grow attached to the story I wanted to tell. So with this new found inspiration, I felt it was necessary to start over again with a clear game plan worked out rather than making it up as I go along like before. I also plan to use my old story as the framework for what I am calling my "Redacted" version of the story so for those who liked my old one would be happy to know I plan to utilize many plot points from my old story but with a more cohesive structure behind it. If you like my old story you are free to go back and read it, just know I have no real plans to go back to it as this is meant to be a clean slate that I can try to tell my story in a way I feel is better and more thought out.**

 **I appreciate the love and attention my old story was able to get, but I hope you can respect my choice as an artist to redo it.**

 **I hope you enjoy it! ^_^**

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Prologue:

There was nothing more invigorating to me than the sound of the final bell that echoes through New Bark Middle School at the end of the day. It meant that I got to spend time with my adorable Marill, Bliss, and to get away from the other kids in my school. I wasn't what you'd call a very sociable girl. I mean, I had a lot of friends in kindergarten and elementary school just like everyone else; however, as most kids found out in middle school, this wasn't the case for long. I didn't adjust well to the stupid rise of the 'cliques' and social groups that were defined by what I felt were stupid reasons. So I opted to spend more of my time with my Pokémon and going on adventures out in the woods, playing games with Bliss and other friendly wild Pokémon.

On this particular day, I was planning to trek my way up this nature trail I just learned about that snaked around the base of a local mountain to the west of town. I heard from my mother that after the first three miles of the path I'd be able to run into this old abandoned town from Johto's feudal era, so I'd expected to come across some old spirit gates and temples. Of course, I jumped at the prospect of getting to explore an abandoned village, the idea of a spooky forsaken temple alone was too tempting for me to ignore. I was so excited to go that I instantly took my bike that was parked outside of the middle school and made a beeline for the trail on the edge of town.

I naturally called my mom to let her know what I was doing, as I got into a lot of trouble the last time I left after school without letting her know where I was going. With Bliss happily sitting in the front basket of my bike, I took off down the road and felt the cool breeze of the springtime weather that was blowing through my hometown. Along the way, I got to see the cherry blossoms starting to lose their petals along the streets. I giggled as I watched my Marill trying to snatch at falling flower petals as they fell around us and were kicked up in our wake as we rode past the planted trees.

Around halfway through town, I biked along the street that was home to our town's Pokémon research lab, and I saw Professor Elm and a few of his research assistants returning to the building from what I could guess was their lunch break, seeing as they were carrying some bagged sandwiches from a local store.

As I came up to them, I waved, saying, "Hey, Elm, how's it going?"

The professor turned when he heard me and waved back. "Oh, good evening, Lyra! You on your way home from school, I assume?"

"Hell no, I'm going to see this bitchin' abandoned town I heard of!" I exclaimed.

"Hey! Watch your language, young lady!" Elm barked back at me with an authoritative tone as I rode past. "Your mother wouldn't approve of it!"

"Sorry, Elm! Please don't tell on me!" I replied while speeding off down the street, watching as Elm gave me a reluctant but disapproving look. Once I was out of earshot, I scoffed to Bliss, "Heh, Professor Elm? More like Professor Snitch, am I right?" I shot a smirk to my water mouse, to which she squeaked out a giggle.

It wasn't long before I cut through the city and I found the entrance to the trail at the edge of town. The path was sparsely traveled like it was hardly ever used outside of an occasional hiker. This route looked kind of like a thin tunnel that was bored into the dense forest with scattered rays of light hitting the path that spilled down from the canopy. Right away I could tell that this was the kind of adventure I was itching to have on a gorgeous day like this.

After parking my bike next to a nearby tree and locking it with a thin chain, I offered my hand to let Bliss hop out of the basket. She happily obliged and ran up my arm onto my shoulder. "Come on Bliss, let's go find that dope ass village!" I exclaimed with a triumphant pose, and Bliss squealed excitedly with me.

So with that my Pokémon and I set off on our little adventure. As I walked along the path, I enjoyed the cool shade cast down by the tree cover providing an excellent temperature for a long hike. It wasn't long before I saw evidence of what seemed like an old road, as I could see the occasional patch of cobblestone and old crumbling stone walls running along the path. After about a mile or so, I found a long stretch of an unbroken stone wall that was about waist high, and I let Bliss run along it and watched as she explored the ruined wall. I found it pretty funny when I saw my cute Water-type try to sneak up on a Pidgey that was perched on the wall. Bliss wasn't much of fighter, preferring to be friendly to most Pokémon she meets, but it was fun to see the more mischievous side of her come out every now and again. But of course, the Pidgey flew away before she could get to it, and she tried to squirt a weak water gun up at the fleeing bird.

I laughed at this and joked sarcastically, "That was a good attempt, except for the part when it wasn't." She then half-heartedly glared at me for that comment, seeing as she was used to my sarcasm, to which I followed with, "Maybe you'll get it next time, Bliss," as I patted the round mouse on the head and she squealed happily.

Bliss then hopped down from the wall and started walking beside me as I heard a flock of what was either some Spearow or some more Pidgeys fly overhead. I watched them flutter past, and as I craned my neck to observe them I looked across the road, and a bright glinting light caught my eye.

I tilted my head to look directly at whatever got my attention, and I attempted to make out what was glinting in the sunlight. I quickly walked over to get a better look and discovered that it was some kid's bike. It was in an odd position, though: rather than it being parked near the side of the road, it looked like someone had just tossed it aside and left there. Nothing was growing on it either, and it broke a few branches on a nearby bush, so it looked like it was left here recently.

 _"That's weird—why would someone ride their bike all the way out here and just toss it to the side of the path? It's not even hidden well, so it's not like the kid was trying to hide it,"_ I thought to myself as I wracked my head wondering if I knew whose bike it was.

"Hey, Bliss, do you know whose bike this is? I swear I've seen it before," I asked my Water-type, to which she walked up to it and nodded.

"Well, I'm glad you know. I don't suppose you could tell me?" I sarcastically quipped as Bliss kind of shrugged unable to adequately express who it belonged to. With that, I decided to move on, as the mystery of the bike had quickly lost my interest. I had more exciting things on my mind, like that abandoned town I was dead-set on exploring.

I stood up from the bike and motioned for Bliss to follow me back along the path. Hardly any time passed before I practically forgot about what we'd found and my mind was quickly occupied with the prospects of the fun adventures I was going to have with my Marill in this old town. I wondered if I would see any Ghost-types hanging around the place or maybe discover something entirely new! It wasn't much longer before I was delighted to find the old torii gate that signified the entrance of the long-deserted village which was situated past the gate. The gate itself was over thirty feet tall, and it looked like it was painted red at one point, but it was overgrown with moss and vines.

"Whoa, this is so fuckin' cool, right, Bliss?" I gawked at the large wooden edifice and heard an approving squeak from my water mouse. "This place is so old; I don't think anyone's been in here in like a hundred years! Let's take a look over there!" I pointed to the first forsaken husk of a building I saw.

The two of us skirted off across the once well-traveled main street of the collapsing overgrown town. The cobblestone road was littered with green moss and scattered piles of dead leaves that fell from the surrounding trees, which some have even sprouted out from the streets or the tops of homes and businesses. From what I could tell around only around 15 or so structures remained standing out of what I felt was once a much larger village that was slowly being reclaimed by the forest. The ruins reminded me a lot of the old feudal homes I saw once back when my mother took me to Ecruteak City a few years ago.

Soon enough my Pokémon and I came upon the doorway to a decrepit old home. I was excited to look inside and poked my head past the entrance that had lost its door long ago. I could see the crumbling remains of the paper shoji wall dividers and what looked like a clutch of Metapods hanging from the ceiling in the far corner.

"Oh cool, look at all the Metapods! You see that, Bliss?" I asked my Water-type as I looked down to my side to see if Bliss was looking. However, I was confused when I found her staring across the cobbled street toward another building. "Hey, Bliss, whatcha lookin' at?" I asked, kneeling down to scratch her head.

The blue mouse's ears twitched slightly; it was like she was listening carefully for something.

"Hey, cutie, what is it?"

She then looked to me with a concerned look on her face, prompting me to ask, "What's the matter? Is something wrong?" My Marill nodded her head before she motioned to me like she wanted me to follow her. She then quickly scurried along the grubby stone path, and I followed in pursuit.

 _"She looks concerned—I hope it's not another injured Pokémon,"_ I pondered, worrying about the potential of having to find a Pokémon center in a pinch.

It wasn't long before Marill, and I came up to a decrepit-looking honden that was adjacent to what I assumed was the town's old shrine due to the elaborate, but faded, carvings along the walls and columns. I was about to ask Bliss if what she heard was inside the structure, but I was interrupted when I heard the distinct sound of someone crying.

I raised my brow, incredulous to the sounds I was hearing. "Is someone crying? All the way out here?" I wondered as I watched my Pokémon waddle past the doorway and into the dark interior. I followed Bliss inside, as I knew my kind and caring Pokémon wouldn't have insisted I accompany her if she didn't think it was important.

As I looked around the now-neglected interior of the old shrine, I called out, "Hello, is someone in here?"

Suddenly, I heard a gasp off to my left, followed by the upset voice of a boy saying, "Go away!"

I turned my head to the left and saw a doorway that led to another room adjacent to the one I was in. I could see on the far end of that room there was a boy who looked about my age curled up and crying to himself. He was wearing a pair of grey sweats, a red sweatshirt, and a baseball cap that seemed too big for him with a golden strip down the middle. He quickly noticed that I was looking at him and I saw him open his tear-soaked eyes and was immediately astonished when I saw the bright metallic yellow of his eyes. They were striking and hard to not notice even in this dark room. However, I quickly grew concerned once I saw his clothes looked like they were roughed up and dirty, and that he had a nasty bruise on his right cheek along with a bit of blood dripping from his nose like he was in a fight.

Distressed that the boy must have been hurt, I quickly stepped into the room and exclaimed, "Oh my gosh, are you okay?!" But I was stopped when he barked back at me, "Leave me alone! Just go away!"

"But you're bleeding."

"I said leave me alone!" He tossed a nearby rock vaguely in my direction, which made me flinch, but I quickly realized it wasn't going to hit me.

"You're just here to make fun of me like everyone else!" the boy sobbed as he hid his face from me.

"Make fun of you? Why would I do that?" I asked, confused.

"Because there's something wrong with me and everyone knows it!"

I took a step closer to him as Bliss followed behind peering around my leg, and I asked, "Something's wrong with you? Is . . . is it your eyes?"

He lamented and scoffed at what I said, answering in an agitated tone, "No, it's not my funny-looking eyes you moron. And I told you to go away!" He then turned away from me, leaning his head against the rotting wood of the wall.

Despite his persistence, I wasn't about to leave this guy with a bloody nose out here in the middle of this forgotten village, I doubt his parents even knew he was out here. Determined to help him, I walked closer to the boy until I was about five feet from him and knelt down to ask, "Well, come on what is it? Why the heck would anyone make fun of you?"

He sniffled before I saw one of his tear-filled golden eyes peer over his shoulder at me, and he replied with an upset stutter, "Y-you really w-want to know?"

I nodded, which prompted him to wipe his eyes with a dirty sleeve and reluctantly answered with, "Fine, it's because I'm not allowed to have a Pokémon, all right? Everyone in school makes fun of me because I wasn't allowed to own my first Pokémon when I turned thirteen!"

Confused, I asked, "Wait what? You're not allowed to have a Pokémon? But—but why not?"

The boy tried to take a deep breath, but it sounded a bit wheezy as he found it hard to breathe he was so upset. He then sobbed, "It's because of something I was born with. The doctors called it something like Aspergers or something else that's fucking stupid like that!" After saying that he slammed his fist against the wall, which made me and Bliss flinch before he continued, "And because of tha—and because of—" He was so miserable he was having trouble speaking and it sounded like he was choking on his words. "And because of that, when I turned thirteen and applied for a Pokémon license, the Johto-Kanto League said I was 'mentally unfit' to have one. Everyone else got to have their own Pokémon but me! And once all my friends found out why, they called me names saying I was stupid and retarded cause only retards can't have Pokémon! And it's all because of some asshole doctor who said I was different!" He was balling his eyes out now and he had to keep wiping his face to keep the tears and his bloody nose from getting everywhere.

I was shocked to hear this; I had never heard of someone being denied their Pokémon license like this before. As I struggled to look for the right words to try and say, he wept, "And now that you know this, you'll think I'm retarded too, just like everyone else." He hid his face behind his arms and cried.

I felt devastated when he said that. I only wanted to help him, but it seemed like I just made it even worse. However, it was at that moment that I came to a realization, "Whoa, whoa, wait a second—aren't you the kid who lives across the street from me?"

He sniffled and looked at me. "W—what?"

I snapped my fingers. "Yeah, that is you! You're—you're Ethan right?"

He looked a bit confused, but he nodded, saying, "Y-yes."

"Yeah, I recognize you now! You're the kid who likes to play chess and stuff!" I smiled as I felt silly that it took me so long to recognize him. "Was that your bike I found on the road up here?"

He nodded his head slightly, wiping the tears from his eyes.

"Did you get bullied today and try to hide here? Was it Eric and his gang?"

He nodded again as he lightly touched the bruise on his cheek.

"Was he the one calling you retarded? Come on man, you shouldn't let what that douchebag thinks about you get you down and . . ." I paused as I saw the bruise on his face. "Oh right, umm . . ." I tried to rebound with something else. "Look, um, I don't know about what some doctor might have said about you," I moved closer to him, sitting against the wall about a foot to his left. "But you gotta know that you don't have to be upset about what others say about you. Besides those guys are fucking losers, bunch a lame'o'zoids—you just need some new friends."

"But no one wants to be my friend. If they aren't making fun of me or beating me up, kids are only nice to me out of pity, cause their parents told them I'm 'special.' And that's all you're doing—being nice to me 'cause you have to'." he scoffed at me before his body language softened as he felt my Marill nuzzle up against him.

"What the hell are you talking about?" I remarked rather sharply. "Why would you think that? You don't seem weird to me."

"You're just saying that! Don't fucking patronize me!" He sounded like he was about to start crying again.

"No, I'm not. Listen to me." I grabbed his shoulder and made him look at me. As he turned around I locked eyes with him for a moment, and I gazed at the unnatural coppery gold of his irises, before I said sternly, "Look, Ethan, I've seen you around the school and at the bus stop before. I can tell you that I never once thought you were stupid or retarded like you think you are. I mean, I've barely ever talked to you before, but you never gave me the impression you were someone with problems. Screw what some lousy doctor said about you, what the fuck does he know?!"

Ethan looked somewhat astonished at this; it was almost like he'd never heard someone say anything like this to him before. It took him a few moments before he gulped and was able to say something back. "Do—do you mean that?"

"Yes, I do. Look you gotta chill out, I doubt its really 'everyone' who thinks your 'special' just a couple of losers. No one should be as miserable as you are over something that some stupid doctor said about you. And those kids who beat you up are the real retards here if you ask me," I joked, which to my surprise made him chuckle slightly. This made me glad that I was starting to cheer him up.

I then scooted closer to him and motioned for Bliss to come to me. "Here, I'll prove it to you, if you were so unfit to have a Pokémon then why would my Marill be so happy to see you?" I then rather blatantly grabbed his hand which caused him to blush slightly and I guided him to pat the head of my water mouse. Bliss quickly smiled as she felt Ethan's hand on her head and she squeaked with approval.

"This is my Pokémon; her name is Bliss. I got her from a litter of Azurills when I was thirteen." I introduced him to my Water-type, "Go ahead and say hi to him, Bliss," I told my blue rodent, to which she squealed cutely toward him and nuzzled against his hand.

I pulled my hand away so that Ethan could nervously rub his fingers along my Pokémon's cheeks and on her head, before he stuttered, "It's um... nice to meet you, Bliss, heh."

Delighted that he seemed to no longer be crying, I said, "Look at that—she likes you! You see, you've already made a new friend, Ethan." I smiled at him.

"Wait—r-really?" he remarked, apparently a bit shocked by my cheerful attitude and how easy it was for Bliss to like him.

"Trust me; you'd know if Bliss didn't like you. Your face would be even wetter than it already is." I chuckled as he rubbed behind the Pokémon's ears. "And you know, if you want, I could be your friend too."

He looked a bit stunned at what I said: he gave me an odd look and I could see his cheeks were a bit rosy too. "Wait—you . . . you want to be my friend?"

I giggled at his dumbfounded face. "Well sure, it looks like you could use one. I don't really have many friends myself, so I guess you can say I need a friend too."

"Really? Wow—I don't know what to say. Um, thank you, I guess," he awkwardly replied.

"Hey, don't mention it, 'bud.'" I playfully shoved him.

"So, um . . . I guess this means we're friends now?" he timidly responded after a few nervous seconds of not knowing what to say.

"Mmhhmm." I nodded.

"Well, umm . . . This is a bit awkward to ask, but I don't know your name yet. And I feel that might be important if we're going to be friends." He timidly scratched the back of his neck trying to laugh but it was hard for him since his throat was sore from crying.

"Oh, that's right!" I smiled, extending my hand out to him to shake. "My name is Lyra—Lyra Kotone. And you?"

He shook my hand and said, "Mine's Ethan Goldberg."

"Goldberg? Heh, that's a pretty funny last name considering your eyes." I giggled. "I think I have the perfect nickname for you."


	2. Chapter 1: Dreams are made of Gold 1

**I was glad to hear the positive response toward my decision to redo my story. I'm happy to say that I've got a lot of plans cooked up to tell my story better.**

 **Anyway its pretty funny to say that I wrote this chapter and it wound up being way longer than I expected, so under some advice from my beta readers, I decided to chop it up into two parts. The second part will be uploaded sometime on Monday or Tuesday, hope you enjoy ^_^.**

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Chapter 1: Dreams are made of Gold Part 1

"Gold, Gold get out of bed it's time to come downstairs!"

I opened my eyes and watched my ceiling fan swirling above me. It's cool breeze and spinning shape vaguely echoing imagery from a dream I was in the midst of. I could hardly remember it now, despite just waking up, but I could recall something about being on top of a snow-capped mountain in the middle of a blizzard and I saw a pair of giant Pokémon flying above me. I think I remember one or maybe both of them saying something about 'enslavement'?

It was always frustrating for me to try and remember my dreams, especially my good ones. The only ones I can ever remember clearly were the boring, or down-right weird ones.

I groaned as I stretched my arms and arched my back, before throwing my comforter off of me so I could sit on the edge of my bed. I then fished around the side of my bed for a pair of gym shorts I could put on before heading downstairs. As I dawned the pair of week-old shorts I turned to my phone on my nightstand and taped the screen to see it was eight o'clock. I frowned as I remembered that today was my birthday and wondered why my mom was insistent I wake up this early. Of all the days I should be allowed to sleep late I thought it would be my 18th birthday.

I yawned again and took a quick look around my room, seeing my dresser next to my cluttered desk, which was covered with loose paint brushes, super glue, and x-acto knives from an unfinished wargaming miniature model I was trying to convert. On the other side of the room was a pair of bean bags set up in front of a flat screen with controllers from various consoles scattered on the floor. Hanging from the wall next to my closet was my poster of the trainer Red posed with his famous Charizard behind him.

As I stood up from my bed I could feel that my dark blue hair was a mess, and I lazily tried to brush it to one side with my fingers.

I then opened my door and called out, "Alright mom, I'm coming down!"

"Ok dear, come to the kitchen when you come down!" She hollered back.

Feeling groggy I bumbled my way down the stairs to our living room, where I saw that the tv was on. It was some news station covering a story about this guy with short light blue hair in a white suit. He was waving to the camera before being handed a pair of comically oversized scissors to cut a ribbon in front of a building. He was surrounded by a crowd of people and broadcasters from other news stations. The caption for the story was 'Philanthropist, Archer Wake, opens Goldenrod Tower to the public.'

I quickly picked up the remote to turn off the tv since no one was really watching it. I then stretched again before I rounded the corner from the living room into the kitchen

Rubbing my eyes, I stepped on the cold tiled floor of my kitchen and muttered, "Good morning Mom."

"Happy birthday Gold!" two clearly distinct voices cheered for me and threw me off guard.

Pulling my hands from my eyes and blinking a few times, I was shocked when I saw that not only was my Mom in the kitchen, but for some reason Lyra was there too! The two of them were sitting at the red granite island in the center of our kitchen with a cupcake that had a lit candle in front of them.

"W—what the heck! Lyra, what are you doing here?!" I stammered, feeling a little awkward as I was only wearing my loose fitting gym shorts and my hair was a mess.

Lyra, who wore her favorite pair of overalls, red shirt, and stockings, snickered as she noticed how embarrassed I was.

"Morning douchebag," she waved at me in a taunting fashion, "You wake up on the ugly side of the bed again?"

"Lyra! What did I say about using that kind of language in my house." My mother lightly scalded her.

Lyra laughed, twiddling her thumbs awkwardly, "Oops, my bad. I'm sorry Mrs. G."

"Anyway," My mom turned to look at me, "Its ok Gold, I invited her over to help me wish you a happy 18th birthday, I thought you'd like to have her over."

"Yeah, I mean that's great—but couldn't you have warned me she was here. For God's sake, I nearly walked down here in just my boxers." I half-heartedly chuckled as Lyra snorted, trying to hold in some laughter.

I could tell she had an inappropriate joke cooked up and desperately wanted to say it, but she didn't want my mom scalding her again.

"I'm sorry, honey, but I wanted it to be a surprise." My mom replied, "Now come and have a seat. We both have presents for you." she gave me a warm smile.

"Umm, can I put a shirt on first?"

"Sure, there's some of your shirts hanging up in the laundry room."

"Thanks," I said, as I quickly dashed to the laundry room at the other end of the kitchen, hearing Lyra snicker again.

After returning to the kitchen with a new shirt, I sat across from the two and blew out the candle on my cupcake.

"Watcha wish for?" Lyra asked.

I then sarcastically replied, "To get a do-over on this morning."

"That's a pretty lousy wish." she pouted, "I can think of five better ones off the top of my head."

"Look, its bad luck to say what you actually wished for."

"Well that's lame" she fiddled with a fork.

"Well, maybe I'll tell you some other time," I replied as I took a bite out of my chocolate cupcake.

"Anyway, Lyra would you like to give Gold your present?" My mom asked, which it still felt weird to hear my mom using a nickname Lyra had given me instead of my real name. I guess 'Gold' was just really catchy, or she liked the charm of it.

"Sure thing, " Lyra reached under her chair and then handed me a small wrapped box with a bow on it. The wrapping paper was a bright yellowish-orange with cute chibi Charmander designs all over it.

"Thanks, Lyra," I took the package from her and quickly tore apart the paper to open it up, and saw that inside was a trading card.

"Whoa, what's this?" I asked as I pulled out the card and saw it was a collector's Trainer Card that depicted the trainer Red.

It was foiled, holographic, and it had him in a dynamic pose with the Pokémon team he had when Red became the champion years ago.

Astonished as this was a notoriously hard to obtain card, I asked, "Wow, where did you get this!?"

"I have my ways," Lyra replied coyly.

"Man, I can't believe you managed to get one. Thank you, I really like it."

"I knew he was your favorite trainer, so felt I had to pick it up. Plus it fits really well with your mom's gift." She gave me a sly smile.

"Wait, in what way?" I asked as I looked up from the card towards my mom and she gave me a suspiciously happy smile.

She then shed a tear from one of her eyes before she wiped it away and she said, "Gold, before I give you your gift, I want you to know that I'm so proud of you. And that I knew you'd be able to make it." She shed a few more tears.

"Mom? Are you ok?"

She sniffled as she handed me an envelope from under her chair. "You've worked so hard interning for Professor Elm these past three years, and it looks like he kept his promise."

Realising what my mother was trying to say, I looked at the envelope and muttered, "No way. You're joking, right? He actually did it?!" I couldn't contain my excitement as I tore open the letter and emptied its contents onto the counter.

And there it was, next to a letter that was handwritten by Elm was a trainer's license with my name and face on it. "Oh my God," was all I could say as I held my hand over my mouth, gasping as I picked up my very own trainer ID.

Its format was set up horizontally, the top had a banner of a desaturated skyline of Mt. Silver with text that read 'Johto/Kanto League' in a black pixelated format. Below that on the right was a head-shot of me smiling that must have been taken about a year ago. To the left was a list of basic info, like age, birthdate, hometown, and date the card was issued. All this info was superimposed on top of the league's symbol which was faded on a dull yellow background. Along the bottom was a grey band where I could add mini-stickers of any Pokémon Gym badges that I may have obtained.

I couldn't believe it, it had taken nearly three years of interning as a researching assistant, and now I finally have it! I can finally own a Pokémon! I felt my eyes water slightly as I thought that I had to be dreaming.

"Oh my God, don't start crying." Lyra interjected, "Cause if you start crying, I'm going to start crying, and then your mom is going to cry even harder than she already is. And it's just going to be an ugly mess."

My mom and I chuckled at her snarky remark, as I wiped my eyes before a tear could form.

"You're right I'm sorry, I'm just so happy that you can finally own a Pokémon, Gold. That ID is going to open so many doors for you sweety." My mom wiped a few tears from her eyes. "It must be such a relief for you, I mean now we can forget about all that stuff from your school years, you can finally put it behind you."

I smiled at her, sensing her trying to hide a sense of guilt behind her smile. I've secretly known for a while now that my mother partially blamed herself for why I couldn't grow up with the option of owning a Pokémon like everyone else. It was her concern for how hyperactive I was as a child that led her to seek out a neurologist; however, there was no way she could've known how his diagnosis would affect me.

"Yeah, you're right," I said as I flipped the card over to see the magnetic strip that ran along the edge as well as a barcode of some kind.

But as I looked closer, I found something I didn't expect printed on the back of my ID. Written in a small red box near the bottom left corner were the words, "History of Mental Disorder." In an instant, it felt like the whole world crashed around me and I was just delivered an emotional gut punch. My arms tensed up and my grip on the car tightened as I stared at those accursed words staring back at me like a terrible reminder of years past.

I snapped out of my emotional trance when I heard Lyra ask, "Yo Gold, is something wrong?"

"Yeah, dear, did they print something wrong?" My mom added.

I quickly placed the ID face up on the table so that they wouldn't see, "What? Oh, it's nothing, I just kinda zoned out there for a second. Y—you know me, heh, sorry." I nervously lied, I didn't want my mom to see what was on the back after what she just said.

"It's ok sweety," My mom smiled, "Why don't you read the note Elm left for you." She picked up the letter and handed it to me.

"Oh sure." I took the paper from her and unfolded it.

The letter read,

"Dear Ethan, I appreciate all the help you've given my team and I over the past three years. It's been great having you around, you were quite the nice change of pace from my stick in the mud colleagues. Now then it took a lot of time and effort for me to get through the League's miles of red tape but I kept my promise, and I managed to call in a favor from an old friend. I'm sorry it took so long though, you need to understand that trying to reverse a license denial, even accidental ones, is astronomically harder than getting an ID with a clean record. To be honest, it might have been easier if you had tried to build a time machine or something and made it so that you were born like three years earlier before that policy was enacted. Sorry, I'm rambling again, I hope you get this before your birthday, if not happy late birthday I guess! Anyway, when you get your ID I want you to stop by the lab, I have something for your birthday, or late birthday, I don't know the postal service is very unpredictable. From, Professor Elm."

Feeling a bit more uplifted from reading his letter, I said, "Hey, he says I should meet him at the lab. Apparently, he has something for my birthday."

"Awe dude, kickass!" Lyra exclaimed, slapping her hands on the countertop, "You're going to get your first Pokémon today!"

"Hold on, what? You really think so?"

"Well uh, duuuhh." She looked to me with disbelief, "What else would he give you, a fucking milky way bar?"

"Lyra, language!" My mom sternly scalded my friend.

"Sorry, sorry." She quickly apologized, before turning back to me, "Come on, go get dressed and let's go to Elm's lab! I wanna see what kind of Pokémon you get!" Her chocolate colored eyes lit up with excitement.

"Oh that sounds like a great idea, here I let me throw this stuff out, and you can go get dressed dear." My mom added, grabbing the wrapping paper and opened the envelope to throw them out.

"Alright," I nodded, then turned to Lyra, "Meet me on the sidewalk, I'm gonna get dressed."

"Kay dude." She stood up from her chair and headed for our front door.

I grabbed her gift and my ID and quickly made my way back up to my room. I then fished through my dresser for something to wear. I settled on a pair of black cargo shorts, a white t-shirt, and my favorite red sweatshirt. On the way out of my room, I stopped and pulled out my ID to look at the back.

That red box stared back at me and all I could think of was how unfair it was. It was hard enough to get this license in the first place, and they can't even give it to me without rubbing it in my face why the League wouldn't let me it in the first place.

I gripped the card tightly, angry that they wouldn't just let me forget, and I almost bent the card in half. I stopped myself from ruining it at the last moment and took a deep breath. I wasn't going to let this stupid card taunt me when I finally had a chance to start over, so I quickly went to my desk and fished through my model paint set. I picked out a glossy white that matched the color on the back of the card perfectly. I grabbed my best brush and began to paint out the red box.

As I finished and fanned the card in the air to dry the paint, I muttered, "I'm not going to let you ruin my life. Not again."

I stared at the card, happy to see the text was no longer visible and I felt a hint of relief to be rid of a shitty stain on my life.

"Hey Gold!" I heard Lyra calling out from outside my window, "What the hell is taking you so long!"

I quickly put my ID in my wallet, and I walked over to open my window. I looked down to see Lyra impatiently waiting for me along with Bliss waddling around next to her. "Sorry Lyra, I was looking for my wallet."

"Again? I told you, you need to get those tracking stickers that hook up to your phone." She pulled out her own wallet to show the sticker on it with a Pokéball design, "They make finding shit way easier, now get your ass down here already!" she stamped her foot impatiently, and Bliss playfully mimicked her by stomping too.

"Alright, alright, I'm coming down, just cool your jets," I answered back, closing my window.

On my way out of my room, I picked up my black and gold baseball cap that was hanging on my doorknob. I've had that hat since middle school, it was a bit faded, but I have yet to find another hat nearly as comfy.

Besides, it was the same hat I was wearing when I met Lyra, so I kind of considered it my lucky hat, but I'd never admit that to her, I'd never the hear the end of it.

My mother waved to me on my way out, but she quickly walked up to me to say, "Oh, Gold, I want you to be careful on your way across town today. I saw on the news someone robbed a convenience store last night and it wasn't far from here and the police are still looking for him. So just stay clear of any shady characters you might see, ok?"

"Alright mom, thanks for the heads up. Love you." I waved to her as I went outside and made my way to the sidewalk to meet Lyra.

Walking up to her I said, "Sorry that took so long, my wallet was buried in my laundry basket. And then my mom stopped me, something about a guy who robbed a store."

She looked up at me with a bit of a disapproving look as I walked up to her.

"Hey, whats up? Something wrong?'

"I thought I told you to stop getting taller." She pouted.

"Oh god not this again," I sighed, "Look I can't help it if you're short." I looked down at her as she was nearly a head shorter than me. "And weren't you taller than me just a few years ago?"

"Yeah, by like three inches, but then you became a freak of nature and had a growth spurt." She teased me, "How tall are you now? Come on cough it up, I wanna know." She tapped her foot, I could tell that any answer I gave her she wouldn't like.

"Umm, five foot ten." I lied,

"Liar! I know you're at least six feet!" She pointed accusingly at me.

"Alright you got me, I'm really six foot one." I scratched the back of my neck.

"I knew it!"

"Yeah, yeah." I remarked dismissively, "Can we get going now?"

"Hmph! Fine," She scoffed before she looked down to her side, "Alright, Bliss, let's go see who Gold's first Pokémon is going to be."

Lyra's Pokémon gave a gleeful squeak as we all started walking up the street. We decided to take a shortcut through a few backyards and before long we left our neighborhood and we started walking down the main street of our town. As we talked on our way to Elm's Lab, Lyra quickly veered our conversation to something ridiculous.

"Ok Gold, I have a new one. Fuck, marry, kill?" She smirked at me.

"Oh god, really?" I rolled my eyes. "Alright fine, what are my choices?"

"Ok, its three people from Smash Bros,"

"Alright, who are they?"

"Peach, Samus, and Zelda." She gave me a dirty smile.

"Ughh fuck, man. Why do you always give me the hard ones."

"Cause its funny to watch the gears turn in your head." She giggled.

"You know, normally this game is played between two guys, right?"

"You think I give a fuck what other people do?" She sassed me, "Now stop stalling, and give me your answer." She lightly punched my arm.

"Alright fine—umm… let me think," I scratched my chin, "Ok let me get the easy one out of the way, I'd have to say I would kill Peach, because she's kind of a boring character who doesn't do much."

"Alright, now who's your fuck and marry?" She coyly nudged me.

"Ok um, uh." I felt my cheeks blushing. "I guess I'd um—fuck Samus?" I shrugged awkwardly, and Lyra giggled. "I don't know I hate these kinds of questions, I guess she's really fit and everything, so she might be good for a one-night stand or something like that. I don't really see her as marriage material if I'm being honest, she's probably a stick in the mud."

"So you'd marry Zelda?" Lyra added.

"I guess so, but if I had to choose I feel the version of her from Breath of the Wild would be best, she seemed more fleshed out as a character and—and why the hell am I explaining this to you." I shoved Lyra lightly as she was a bit too enthusiastic to hear my answer.

"What? It's funny!" She shoved me back.

"Not to me!"

"That's what makes it funny dumbass!"

"Ughh fine, it's your turn. Fuck, marry, kill! It's um… uh, let's say Bowser, Ganondorf, and Link!" I looked at her with a fire in my eye.

"Easy." She shrugged, then listed off her answers on her fingers, "Kill Ganondorf, fuck Link, and marry Bowser, cause that turtle is rich as shit." She then gave me one of the biggest shit-eating grins I've ever seen.

"Well shit, that wasn't nearly as satisfying as I had hoped it would be." I lamented.

"What, you jealous of my turtle husband?"

"Eww, no." I laughed, which prompted her to chuckle with me, as we rounded a corner down the next street.

"So, change of subject." Lyra began, "What do you think you'll do with your new ID, and the Pokémon Elm is going to give you?"

"I—I really don't know." I shrugged, "I'm not even sure Elm has any Pokémon to give."

"Sure he does." Lyra assured me, "You remember my pen pal from Cherrygrove, right?"

"Um, yeah wasn't her name Crystal or something?"

"Well, she prefers Kris now, but yeah not too long ago she graduated from the Pokémon Ranger Academy, and she had such high grades she got an offer from Elm a few months ago, and she got a Chikorita from him."

"Wow, really? I didn't know Elm was involved with the Rangers."

"From what my mother told me, he used to be one before he became a professor, so maybe he's a patron of the academy or something," Lyra suggested.

Confused, seeing this was the first time I heard about this, I said,"Huh, how about that. I guess he never really brought it up when I interned for him. He's always been very focused on his work."

"What did he work on? I know he's friends with my mom, but I never really heard about what he actually researches."

"Oh, that? He's mostly interested in how Pokémon evolve, as its a process that not a lot of people understand very well," I explained.

"How so?"

"Well it's due to the fact that when a Pokémon evolves it has a lot of factors involved," I elaborated, "You see, almost anything can affect or trigger the process like its health, how old it is, how strong it is, and even has social aspects as well, like its bond with a trainer and such. Plus its really hard to get a Pokémon to evolve on command as you can probably guess, so its next to impossible to conduct experiments when the thing you're trying to test is unreliable."

"Did you ever see it happen?" Lyra leaned in, very curious to hear my answer.

"Well, I've seen it happen by accident twice, once with a Rattata, and another time with a Metapod. I remember Elm was pretty ticked off that he didn't have any of his equipment ready when it happened. Then there was this time he managed to get a Grimer to evolve into a Muk on command when he fed it a lot of toxic chemicals. It's the best data he has at the moment."

"Oh, that's cool," Lyra exclaimed, "I've only ever seen Bliss evolve. I've told you this story, right? You know the one where I trapped my foot between two boulders and Bliss evolved from Azurill to Marill?"

"Yeah, I remember that story. Didn't she use a water gun to erode the rock or something?" I answered and heard Bliss let out a triumphant chirp.

"Yup, I was so proud of Bliss," Lyra smiled as she picked up her Pokémon to hold the rodent in her arms. "So anyway, segwaying back to my first question, what did you want to do with the ID now that you have it?"

"Well," I scratched the back of my neck timidly, "I felt it would be safe to try and become a Pokémon researcher, you know maybe become a professor one day like Elm."

Lyra then gave me a disappointed look when she heard my answer before she took a few steps ahead of me and turned around to stand in my way, stopping me in my tracks.

"No, Gold, I asked what 'you' wanted to do." She stood defiantly.

"I—I told you I want to be a researcher." I stuttered, my voice giving off no confidence whatsoever.

She tapped her foot impatiently, giving me a scrutinous look, and said, "I know for a damn fact that's not what you want to do. What about all that stuff you and I would talk about for hours when we were still in school? About how you wanted to be a trainer? Did you just forget about all that?"

Feeling a tad ashamed, I struggled to explain, "N—no Lyra… I didn't forget, its just… that—"

"Just what?" She stepped closer and looked me dead in the eye.

"Just that…" I stammered before I took a deep breath and explained, "Look, I don't want to be a trainer, not anymore. I'm too old to start now, most people started when they were 15 and I only just got the license, I'd be way behind in experience." I felt a bit defeated as I continued, "Look, Lyra I wanted to tell you that I was going to give up a while ago. I never thought I was going to get the license until today, but even so I don't think I'm cut out to compete in the league."

"Oh please don't tell me you still think there's something wrong with you, do you!?" Lyra exclaimed angrily, stamping her foot.

"But Lyra, there is something—" I tried to answer, but was cut off by her.

"No there isn't! You know, I had completely forgotten about that whole mental diagnosis crap until today. You wanna know why?"

I hesitated before I nodded nervously.

"Because I never noticed anything was wrong with you this whole time we've been friends. Sure you're a bit loud sometimes, and you don't always know when I'm being sarcastic, and you have trouble focusing on stuff that bores you, but who freaking doesn't! If you ask me they must've made a mistake, cause my ass you weren't fit to own a Pokémon." She was practically fuming after what she said before she calmed down and she looked at me with a sincere look, "Gold, I don't want you to give up on your dream of being a trainer just cause you think you can't do it, because I know you can."

I gulped nervously and replied, "You really think so?"

"Yes, I've seen you kick ass when you play those strategy games you love, I mean how many times have you ironmaned XCOM on the hardest difficulty?"

"Umm… 24 times, and um—16 times on XCOM 2." I admitted

"You see what I mean, you have a knack for shit like that!" She playfully punched my arm. "You just see and understand shit most people don't even notice, and I've heard that Pokémon battles are almost nothing but pure strategy."

"You… really think I have what it takes?"

"I know you do." She smirked at me, before turning around and started to walk.

After taking a few steps to catch up with her, I said, "Alright, alright, you convinced me."

She then gave me a relieved look when she heard that.

"Any time buddy," She chimed, "let me know the next time you have another stupid emotional crisis. I was thinking I'd take a more direct approach next time and just kick you in nuts to knock some sense into you."

"Please don't."

"No promises." She winked while smirking at me. "Besides, if Kris could go from having shitty grades in school to graduating honors from the Ranger program, I'm sure you can handle being a trainer."

"Yeah, I guess you have a point," I said before I started to laugh and she began laughing with me.

"What the hell would you do without me?" Lyra joked.

"I don't know probably—" I tried to respond, but I was cut off when I felt someone run into me while I was distracted.

The guy must have been booking it, cause when he hit me it knocked the wind straight out of me. It happened so fast I could hardly register my surroundings as it all rushed past my vision in a blur. I could hear Lyra calling out in distress along with the sound of glass breaking and someone blurting out obscenities as I hit the concrete of the sidewalk with a hard thud.

It took a few moments before my lungs caught up with me I could take in a sharp wheezing breath. I painfully tried to lean up to try and to see what had actually happened. I looked up and saw Lyra was kneeling next to me and trying to get me to take her hand to help me up. I felt dazed and couldn't quite hear what she was saying to me, but she looked very concerned. I then tried to find who ran into me and looked forward to see some guy trying to get up from the ground.

He had long, ratty, red hair that looked greasy and unwashed. He was wearing a black jacket with red trims around the pockets and front zipper, along a pair of dirty, baggy jeans.

As he stood up, I saw him stumble a bit as it seemed his legs were uneasy, but soon he stared angrily at me, and I saw his eyes were a bizarre, cold shade of silver.

He wiped some dirt off his face and yelled at me, slurring his words, "The fuck is y-your problem! Why don't you w-watch where your fucking going next time, huh?!" he then walked up to us, staring down at me with fists clenched, "Well? Explain yourself, you little faggot."

"Hey chill out it was an accident you—," Lyra barked back at him, but he quickly snapped at her, saying, "I'm not fucking talking to you brat, I'm talking to your limp dick friend here!" He looked back down at me, one eye obscured by his red hair, "Well, bastard, what makes you think you can just fucking knock my ass on the ground, huh?"

I was scared, the guy looked as if he might be drunk because his stance was a bit shaky, and I was worried he might do something violent. I tried to speak, but just stammered and stuttered out some gibberish.

"The fuck is wrong with you," He snarled, "You slow or something, fucking spit it out you retard!" He then kicked my leg, and continued, "Come on slowtard, fucking say something, I wanna know what gives you the balls to get in my fucking way!"

His words cut deep into me, and his stature over me made me feel small. I felt choked up, and I tried to will myself to speak, or even move, but nothing would happen. All I could think of was how awful I felt staring down my bullies in middle school.

"Hey piss off, or I'm gonna call the cops!" Lyra shouted at him as she shoved him back, and Bliss hissed at him.

The guy looked infuriated by this and it seemed like he might retaliate, but he stopped when I heard voices coming from around the corner up the street. The drunken bastard turned his head toward the voices, and he cursed, before looking back at the two of us.

He spat on the ground, before snarling, "I don't have time for this, out of my way!" He then quickly rushed past us, nearly knocking Lyra to the ground before darting down an alleyway.

Lyra stumbled as her Marill reached up to steady one of her legs.

When she got her footing, she quickly walked up to me and offered a hand to help me up, "Are you okay Gold?"

I took her hand and stood up with her help, saying, "I'm… I'm fine, he didn't kick me that hard,"

"What a fucking freak." She cursed, looking at the shattered bottle on the sidewalk, "Drunken bastard."

It was then that Lyra and I saw two police officers appear around the corner at the end of the street. One had a Jolteon following him, and the other had a Poliwhirl wearing an officer's hat and utility belt.

Without hesitation, I called out to them, "He went down that alley, officers!"

The two policemen looked to me and rushed down the road to where I pointed, the shorter of the two said as they passed, "Appreciate the help, don't worry we'll catch him!"

I stood there and watched as they disappeared and eventually couldn't hear them anymore. When they were long gone, I wanted to move on, but for some reason, I felt like I couldn't budge. I just sorta stared off into space as the thought of how powerless that guy made me just feel lingered in my head, and it left me feeling sick to myself. The words he used to curse me out were echoing through my mind, giving life to a feeling of alienation that I haven't felt in years. It was suffocating, and for a brief moment, I felt alone and scared like the whole world despised me.

"Gold?" Lyra tugged on my sweatshirt's sleeve, prompting me to snap out of my daze and look at her, "Are… are you ok?"

Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I stuttered, "What… oh—oh y-yeah I'm ok."

"Are you sure? You looked really upset for a moment there, was it what that guy said to you and—"

"I said I'm fine, just fucking drop it!" I barked at her, cutting her off with a rather nasty attitude.

In that moment though, the almost frightened look Lyra gave me when I yelled at her made me instantly regret what I had done.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell at you," I apologized as I looked toward the ground and held my arm nervously, "Look can we just drop it? I'm not really in the mood to talk about what just happened, ok?"

"Umm—sure, if that's what you want." Lyra looked worriedly at me.

"Thanks" I stood upright doing my best to forget about my little anxiety attack, and said, "Look, let's just hurry up and get to Elm's lab, ok?" I tried to act cheerful.

"Yeah, sure, let's get going." Lyra agreed as she put on a smile.

I tried to smile back, and I motioned for us to move on.


	3. Chapter 2: Dreams are made of Gold 2

Chapter 2: Dreams are made of Gold Part 2

It was an awkward walk for the next few minutes. I had a hard time trying to forget about what that asshole said to me. I couldn't shake this feeling of melancholy and isolation, something I haven't felt for a long time. It's only been a year or two since the last of my tormentors from middle school moved away, and I thought I could finally move on and forget about my mental issues. But, it felt like no matter what I do the world refuses to let up and would stop at nothing to remind me.

I don't know what I would've done if I hadn't met Lyra all those years ago. I still don't really understand why she's friends with me, even now as we neared Elm's lab, she's managed to take my mind off of what happened and make me laugh.

"Bullshit" I scoffed,

"You bet your ass it works."

"No fucking way, only the horn and star can beat the blue shell."

"No I'm telling you, you can use a mushroom to dodge the blue shell if you use it at the last moment. I did it last night on my Switch."

I crossed my arms, echoing a taunt she often used on me,"Pics, or it didn't happen."

"I'll race you tonight and show your ass it works." She pointed defiantly at me.

"How the fuck are you going to get a mushroom all the way up to first place?"

"Like a fucking boss that's how!"

"Pfft, yeah right."

"You wanna fucking bet?! You know I dominate you in Mario Kart!"

"Yeah, but that's cause you spam Bowser and his heavy ass all the time! The heavy weights have an unfair advantage."

She then sassed me saying, "Oh, so you are jealous of my big ole turtle husbando!"

Flustered I replied, "No, he's just broken!"

"You're just pissed Mario Kart isn't a turn based RPG, and that I'm happily married to the king of koopas." she shoved me.

"No, I'm not!" I shoved her back, before we approached the back parking lot of Elm's research lab, "Look we can talk about this later," I reached into my pocket to pull out my lab ID, "Follow me, it's easier to take the back entrance, fewer doors to go through."

"Oh boo hoo, 'I'm Gold, and I don't like a few extra doors.'" Lyra taunted me by mocking my voice, poorly.

"Eh, blow it out your ass Lyra." I quipped as we approached the back door and I swiped my card through the reader next to the door handle.

After an approving beep, I opened the door and let Lyra in. I then grabbed a rock I had stashed behind a few boxes and used it to prop open the door.

Lyra turned to see what I was doing and asked, "What's the rock for?"

"Well," I stood up after wedging the rock, "This door's been acting funny, and the card reader on the inside is busted and it only lets you in, not back out. So I've been propping it open the days I've work here to make it easier to leave at the end of the day."

Lyra crossed her arms, saying, "That sounds unsafe."

"Eh, not really, we're in the best part of town, nobody ever snoops around here." I shot back as I started my way down the white tiled hallway.

"Eh, whatever, I don't care anyway, its not my stuff on the line." she shrugged as she waved for Bliss to follow.

I then guided Lyra through the back halls, passing the occasional pile of boxes and closets full of supplies until we were able to leave the storage rooms and enter the actual lab thanks to another swipe of my card.

"Where do you think Elm is?" Lyra asked.

"Well it's Saturday, so he's probably taking it easy and just hanging in his main lab, either logging some data, or binge watching something," I answered.

"Binge watching?"

"Yeah, I've caught him watching Housewives of Petalburg once in his off time."

"Wait, what?" she giggled.

"Yeah I didn't take him to be into reality TV, but apparently he likes it."

"Well, that's just funny." Lyra laughed before she tapped my shoulder saying, "Hey, I think I see him. Elm!" She called out waving her hand.

I looked down the white marbled hall and saw Elm exiting one of the holding pens that housed a few Pokémon from the local area.

He was locking the door before he was startled and turned his head towards us. He then adjusted his glasses, saying, "Oh, um, well good morning you two," He put his keys in his pocket as he slung a tablet and sandwich he was holding under his arm, and said, "To be honest I wasn't expecting you to be here so early, Gold." He then paused, before awkwardly asking, "Wait, today was your birthday day right? My letter wasn't late was it?" He checked his watch to see the date.

Walking towards him I said, "No, your letter wasn't late at all. As for why I'm here so early you can thank my mom and this little gremlin right here," I patted Lyra on the head in a condescending manner.

"Hey!" Lyra barked at me, "I am not a gremlin!"

"Then why did you and my mom insist on getting me out of bed at the crack of dawn!"

"Because I didn't want to wait stupid!" She stuck her tongue out at me. "You always sleep in."

"Alright, alright settle down you two." Elm interjected, "Now then Gold, as I said in my letter, I have something for you. Come with me," Elm motioned for us to follow.

"Oh I'm so excited, I can't wait to see what your first Pokémon is going to be," said Lyra as she picked up Bliss and help her in her arms.

"What?! How did you know, who told you!?" Elm looked shocked for a moment.

"Um, I just guessed. Was it meant to be a secret?"

"Well it was, but now the surprise is all ruined." Elm pouted almost childishly.

"Hey, man, don't sweat it" I said, trying to cheer up the odd professor, "I still don't know what kind of Pokémon you have me. You can still surprise me with that."

Scratching his chin, he said, "Hmm, I guess you're right. Then the element of surprise is still in effect!" He pointed enthusiastically down the hall at the double doors to his main lab.

Having seen this, Lyra leaned toward me and muttered, "Wow, I never noticed it before but he's weirder than you are."

I leaned back and said, "Yeah, he's a bit of a scatterbrain, but he's really quite brilliant when he's focused on something."

"Huh, just like you," Lyra smirked at me.

I rolled my eyes at her comment before we reached the main laboratory and Elm opened the two large doors to it. It was dark inside as it was the weekend and all of Elm's staff were at home. Elm fondled the walls near the door as he searched for the light switch before he finally found it.

"Whoa, this place is cool!" Lyra commented as the fluorescent lights illuminated the room.

The room was about 50ft by 50ft, with cyan colored tiles making up the floor work. The first half of the room was a line up of a few lab tables, similar to the ones back in our high school, equipped with sinks and gas lines for a bunsen burner.

The room was then cut in half by an extended range of servers and other machines, whose functions and purposes I've only managed to learn a fraction of in my time interning here.

Past the wall of servers was Elm's personal work-space, equipped with another row of lab tables, a Pokémon healing station like the ones you'd be able to find at a Pokémon center, and other various equipment Elm has to record data and observe Pokémon evolution. As usual, the place was a bit of a mess, with lab papers and folders scattered all over the tables and Elm's desk.

"Man, that's a lot of clutter." Lyra commented as the three of us walked over to his desk, "What, was Gold your maid, Elm?" Lyra joked as she let her Marill down to wander around.

"Eh, pretty much," I admitted, recalling all the paperwork I've had to sort in the past.

Elm wasn't really paying attention to the two of us as we looked around the lab, he was preoccupied with searching the drawers of his desk, "Ah ha! Here it is!" he proclaimed as he lifted a circular case with a Pokéball emblem emblazoned on it onto the desk.

"Oh fancy looking," said Lyra as she stood next to the case.

"So, Elm, I guess it's time to stop beating around the bush," I added as I came up to see the box. "What kind of Pokémon do you have for me?"

I had to admit, I was feeling a little gitty with anticipation, and I nervously held the edge of the wooden table.

"Alright, let me show you." Elm pressed two little tabs on the case, and it popped open, it had two Pokéballs inside and an empty slot for a third one.

"Oh, so you were right Lyra. Kris did get a Chikorita from you, Elm." I commented, noticing the vacant slot.

"Yeah, that's right, how did you know? You friends with her?" Elm asked.

"She's a pen pal I have," Lyra answered.

Elm shrugged, "Huh, small world." he then looked to me, "Anyway, I have two Pokémon left I got from the League. I was thinking a good one for you, Gold, is the Cyndaquil here. He's a fire-type and has a pretty even temper all things considered." He turned the case so that the fire-type's capsule faced me.

"Oh ok," I reached for the Pokéball, but I hesitated as my curiosity got the better of me. "Hey, who's in the other one?"

"Oh, that?" Elm's expression saddened, "It's a Totodile, but you wouldn't be very interested in him."

"Wait why not?" Lyra asked.

"Well, he seems to have a very nasty attitude and is too aggressive. Any time I've let him out of the ball he would hiss and try to bite anyone that got close to him. I can't remember the last time I let him out besides to feed him."

"Sounds awful," Lyra remarked.

Curious I picked up the Pokéball that contained the Totodile, and I said, "I wonder why that is?" I looked at the red and white device, and I hovered my finger over the button.

"Oh be careful, Gold, the button on that one is pretty sensitive, the little guy bit it once and now the button is very finicky," Elm warned me.

Hearing this I started to place the ball back and said, "Oh, ok, sorry I didn't—"

But before I could get the device back into the case I fumbled with my sweaty hand, and it slipped out of my grasp, "Oh shit!" I cursed as it fell face first onto its button on to Elm's desk. It then bounced up after it made a sharp clicking sound, and I was blinded by a bright flash of light.

The distinct sound of a Pokéball went off as a cascade of white light and energy flowed out and materialized the Totodile on to the floor a few feet from us. As soon as the blue reptile became aware of its surroundings, it turned to all three of us and hissed loudly, bearing its numerous sharp teeth.

"Gold, quickly get the Pokéball!" Elm shouted as the capsule was rolling off the table.

I quickly tried to snatch it, but I wasn't fast enough, and it rolled off the edge and bounced toward the water-type.

"Oh no! Bliss get away from him!" Lyra called out, and her water mouse dashed over to us to hide behind Lyra's legs.

I then watched as the Pokéball rolled over to the Totodile and it quickly snatched it up in its jaws. It then shook its head violently like it was trying to tear it apart.

"You two step back, I'll handle this." Elm stepped forward, trying to take control of the situation.

As he went to face the reptile, it hissed and lunged forward scaring Elm into jumping back. The Totodile then took a defensive stance before it dashed backwards to find a better spot to hide.

It tried to move under one of the tables in the room, but it stumbled as it backed up into one of the legs and it bumped a few things off of the top of the table. As some of the papers and folders fell down, the Totodile dropped the ball and snapped at the parchments; however, it was startled when the sound of something metallic hit the floor.

I quickly noticed it was a set of medical scalpels and other surgical tools Elm used in the unlikely case of a medical emergency. It was then that I noticed that the reptile froze in place as it stared at the sharp objects and one of them slid along the ground toward him. The carnivore let out a whimpering sound as it fell onto its back and scuttled away, scrambling to hide behind one of the table's legs hissing at the scalpels.

As Lyra and Elm panicked slightly, I couldn't help but observe the blue reptile more closely and noticed something. As it hid behind the wooden post and hissed, it gripped its left forearm rather firmly. I then stepped closer, my curiosity getting the better of me.

"Gold, step back it's dangerous! That thing can take your hand off." Elm demanded, but for some reason, I felt compelled to ignore him as I knelt down and I noticed why the Totodile was gripping its arm.

It was obscured by its hand, but the little guy had a nasty looking scar that ran down its left forearm. It was hard to tell, but it looked like it might have been inflicted by a blade or a sharp object.

"Gold, are you insane?! Get away from that thing!" Lyra cried out.

"That's it, stand back, I'm gonna subdue it!" Elm yelled as he grabbed the Pokéball for the Cyndaquil.

I quickly raised my hand toward Elm and said, "Wait! Stop! I think I know why it's like this."

"What?" Lyra and Elm almost simultaneously asked at the same time.

"Don't you guys see it? This guy was abused, he's just scared."

"Wait, what? How do you know that?" Lyra asked.

"Don't you see the scar on his arm?"

Hearing this, Elm said, "There's a cut on his arm? I-I never noticed."

"Look, he was terrified of the scalpels, see?" I pointed to the medical tools on the floor, "Someone must have cut him badly before you ever got him, Elm," I explained as I used my foot to knock the sharp objects far away from the table that the Totodile was hiding under.

The young reptile watched me suspiciously as I came closer to him, it let out a low rumble from deep within its throat like an angry gator.

"Gold, he's gonna bite you! Get back now!" Elm demanded.

"Elm, trust me, he's scared, I-I think I can help him." I boldly defied him, as I looked back at the reptile and I watched it quickly dash to snatch up its Pokéball with its jaws, before hiding behind another leg post and hissed slightly.

"Hey there little guy, you scared?" I tried to talk to him in a calming voice, leaning down to look under the table.

The young gator gripped the ball tightly in its gnarly teeth, and its vibrant red eyes stared intently at me. It scratched the paint the on the Pokéball with its teeth as it shifted the capsule around in its jaws. But after a few seconds, the Totodile dipped its head, almost like it was nodding.

"Was that a yes?" I chimed in a friendly voice, and the gator dipped its head again a few seconds later as I sat down to be more on his level.

It was then that I felt a little weird as I noticed just how quickly I was able to talk to this Pokémon, unlike regular people.

"Are you scared of me?"

The reptile let out a short snarl, and gripped the ball tighter, but a few seconds passed and I saw it momentarily dip its snout again.

"Its ok to be scared, I used to be scared a lot when I was younger too. I-I know how it feels to think the world is out to get you." I tried to move closer to him, but the gator hissed, "Whoa! Its ok, ok, relax man I'm not gonna hurt you."

"Gold, are you sure you know what you're doing?" Lyra called out to me from behind Elm's desk.

"To be frank with you, Lyra, um... not really," I answered nervously, "But hey, he's not biting me. So uh, so far so good… heh." I felt a bead of sweat run down my forehead.

Worriedly she stammered back, "Alright, just don't lose your fingers, ok?"

"Kay," I gulped as I looked back at the Totodile, who was grabbing its arm tightly, "Hey... did… did someone cut you there?"

The gator finally averted its intense gaze from me for a moment as it looked to its scarred arm.

"I bet that must've hurt, I'm so sorry some asshole did that to you."

The young gator grumbled lowly, almost like it was answering me.

"So look, can you just give me the ball and—" I tried to reach for the capsule slowly, but stopped as the reptile hissed again.

"Ok, you're still scared, huh? Here look," I quickly emptied my pockets and turned them inside out, "See, I don't have a knife on me, I promise I won't hurt you."

The gator looked incredulously at me, and its body language relaxed a bit. However any attempt to move closer the gator would tense up again.

"Hey, why don't you just drop the ball?" I asked as I turned to look back at Lyra, "Hey, do me a favor and hand me Elm's sandwich?

"Why?"

"Trust me." I looked back at the Totodile, "Hey little guy, you wanna make a trade?"

The gator gave me an odd look as I waited for Lyra to hand me the sandwich.

"Here," Lyra said as she walked up behind me and she handed me what smelled like a turkey sandwich. She then kneeled down a few feet away from us and watched my next move intently.

With the sandwich in hand, I slowly reached out and said, "Ok, you see this?" I pointed to the sandwich, "I'll give this to you, if you can just drop the Pokéball, ok?" I fought hard to keep my hand steady and try not to show any fear.

The Totodile looked like it was conflicted, as I watched its eyes darting between me, the food, and the scalpels I had kicked away. I watched as it took a timid step forward, and I saw a bit of drool drip from its lower jaw while he readjusted its grip on the capsule in its mouth.

"Its ok, I promise you'll be ok." I moved the food closer to the reptile's jaw.

The tension in the air was thick, and the water-type loosened its grip on the Pokéball before it dropped from its jaws and rolled along the ground toward me. It was covered in saliva and all scratched up, leaving a wet trail as it rolled up to me.

"There you go, now I'll um... just trade you back… ok?" I said, calmly as I picked up the Pokéball.

"Ew, that's so gross," Lyra commented as I picked up the wet capsule.

"Shoosh," I said, turning my head to quiet Lyra as I felt any wrong move would set off the young gator.

As I turned my head back to face the Totodile, I saw it had moved while I wasn't looking and was just a few inches from my hand. Its jaws were wide open, and it looked like it would take a bite out of my fingers along with the sandwich. But before I could instinctively reel my hand back, I saw the jaws shut! I closed my eyes as a loud snap echoed through the room and both Elm and Lyra let out an alarmed gasp.

I was too scared, convinced I had lost a few fingers. It wasn't until I felt a light tug on the food I was holding that I peered through one eye. To my relief, my hand wasn't a bloody mess, and I watched as the reptile was taking cautious bites out of the sandwich and swallowing them whole.

"Oh thank God," I sighed with relief. "Phew, that was almost the single dumbest thing I've ever done, heh."

"Wow, that's incredible. How—how the hell did you know what to do?" Lyra asked as she scooted closer to my side to see what was happening better.

"Heh, you're uh, you're gonna laugh when you hear this." I scratched my neck timidly as I let go of the sandwich so the Totodile could sit down and nibble on it. "Like I said, I noticed the scar on his arm and his reaction to the scalpels, and it umm…"

"It what?"

"Well it, um," I felt flustered as I tried to spit it out, "It uh, kinda reminded me of this quest from a fantasy RPG I played a few years ago. It involved a monster that attacked a town, and it was next to invincible in combat. The only way you could stop it was to actually approach it with um, well, without any weapons or armor on and give it some food. It would then become friendly and even follow you around."

Lyra gave me a bit of an odd look, "You fucking for real?" She then snickered, "Of course you'd say something like that." She shoved me lightly.

"Yeah, it's pretty silly." I chuckled,

I then heard some clapping of approval from behind me, and I turned my head to see Elm was walking up behind us, and he said, "That, that was incredible, Gold. You managed to accomplish something neither my staff nor I could do in all the time we've had that Totodile."

"Oh, um thank you," I stammered as he stood over me before I was startled when I felt something rest against my leg and saw that the Totodile had moved to sit next to me. It had what was left of the sandwich in its hands, and it looked around nervously as it took timid bites out of it. When it noticed me looking at it, the reptile shot a glance up at me and I got a bizarre sense of uneasy trust from the look in its red eyes.

"No, Gold, this is phenomenal, regardless of what gave you the idea, you were able to make keen observations on this Pokémon's behavior and act on it accordingly. In the years you've interned for me I've never seen this kind of initiative from you."

"Yeah, he's right, I've never seen you act so boldly like this before either," Lyra added.

"Oh, that? I—I don't know what to tell ya. I just saw it was scared, and I um, I dunno just felt like I could help him." I struggled to explain.

"Well, regardless, it was a shame you were denied your trainers license, Gold. You have a knack for handling these creatures, and it's a crime in my eyes to keep you away from them." Elm praised me.

"Wow, um…" I felt speechless, "Thanks Elm, that means a lot to me." I then wiped the wet and scratched up Pokéball I had in my hand against my sweatshirt before holding it up to him, "I uh, I figure you're gonna want to put him back in his ball right?"

Elm waved his hand dismissively, saying, "No Gold, you keep it."

"Huh?"

"Keep it, you've made a real connection with this Totodile. It would be wrong of me to deprive him of the first person he's had a friendly interaction with in a long time."

"You want me to keep him? But," I looked down at the water-type then back to Elm, "What about the Cyndaquil?"

"Don't worry about him, this Totodile needs someone to help raise and care for it far more than the Cyndaquil. And I think you should be the one to do it, Gold."

"Wow, th-thanks Elm, I'll take good care of him I promise." I then looked down at the young gator, and I said, "Wadda ya say, little guy, you uh… you wanna hang out with me for a while, I guess?" I then made a risky move and tried to place a hand on the reptile's head in an attempt show him some affection.

At first, the Totodile flinched as he felt my hand on his scaly, bumpy head, and I heard a little hiss. But he slowly let his guard down as he realized I wasn't going to hurt him and I saw him look up at me and after a few moments it lightly dipped his head like he was giving me an approving nod.

"Oh my God, that's so adorable!" Lyra mewed, "Gold whatcha gonna name him!" she enthusiastically tugged on my arm.

"Huh, you know what, I think I have a pretty good name for him, now that I think about it," I rubbed the little carnivore's head, "I think I'll name him after a river, you know since he's a gator."

"Which river?"

"I think I'll call him, Nile."


	4. Chapter 3: Trust Issues

**Happy Holidays! I want to apologized for the long wait for this chapter, I've been caught up with the hunt for a job, the interviewing for the job, the accepting of said job, moving, and getting used to the new Apartment. That and some serious writers block.**

 **Regardless I hope you like it, and I should be able to release more chapters soon!**

* * *

Chapter 3: Trust Issues

"I say screw that noise man, it's your birthday: you shouldn't have to waste it being a postal service man for Elm," Lyra said as we left the lab through the front entrance.

"But you heard him, he said it was important. I gotta do it."

Giving me a skeptical look, she added, "Are you serious? Elm said the guy's name was 'Mister Pokémon.' Who the fuck calls themselves that? Sounds pretty pretentious or psychopathic to me."

"It's probably a codename or something. I've heard Elm talk about him before, and we've even gotten packages with that name on the return address. Some of the rarest things in Elm's lab come from this guy," I tried to explain.

"So he's a smuggler, or a drug dealer now? Is that what you're telling me?"

"No... I mean um yeah… but um," I fumbled with my words, "Ok maybe he's a smuggler, but he's not a drug dealer, at least I don't think so."

"You don't think so?" She gave me an unconvinced look.

"Look, Elm trusts him, so I guess I do too."

"Eh, whatever," She rolled her eyes, "I'm not gonna waste my day doing errands. I think my mom needed me for something later anyway; I can't be in Cherry Grove when she comes calling."

A bit confused, and slightly disappointed, I asked, "Wait, you won't come with me?"

"Nah," She shrugged, "Besides, I don't want to get in the way of you and Nile bonding." She then leaned down to look at the Totodile that was hiding behind my legs, "Isn't that right you scary little snapper." Lyra used a cute puppy dog voice to talk to him.

I looked down and saw Nile was giving Lyra an uneasy look and I felt one of his clawed hands lightly gripping my leg.

"Aw that's so cute, he likes you." Lyra smiled.

"Either that or he prefers me as a human shield. I'm not sure he really trusts me yet, every time I get close to him he still jumps."

"He's not jumping now, and I can't see him getting any closer to you." She sarcastically quipped.

Shrugging I admitted, "Ok that's true, but he came to me, I guarantee he'll snap at me if I were to approach him too quickly."

"Well then you two need to spend some time alone," She remarked as she stood up and motioned for Bliss to come to her.

The blue rodent waddled over to Lyra, and I saw the water-type wave to my Totodile and squeak out something that sounded like a greeting. To my surprise, Nile grumbled something in response and what happened next was somewhat unexpected.

When Bliss heard whatever Nile had said, she grimaced and then pointed at him with an accusing look. Nile then chirped out something, and this time Bliss really got worked up as she squeaked back at him like she was mad or something.

"What the heck are they going on about?" I wondered out loud.

Lyra then started to giggle, and I looked to her perplexed, asking, "What? What is it?"

"Apparently your Totodile has a potty mouth." she laughed as she picked up Bliss off the ground to stop her from squabbling with Nile.

"A potty mouth?" I raised a brow, "How can you tell?"

"Bliss usually gets this way when she meets rude Pokémon. She's usually as sweet as candy, but Bliss has a short temper when it comes to rude people and Pokémon," She explained as she patted the water mouse on her head.

I looked down at Nile and saw him stick his tongue out childishly at Bliss, which made me chuckle a bit. "So you're telling me my first Pokémon has trust issues and uses foul language? I'm not sure how to feel about that."

"Don't worry about that Gold. I bet you can turn Nile into a stand-up citizen," She joked as she turned around and said, "Anyway you should head out to Cherry Grove soon, or else you won't be able to get back home before 11 or something."

"Wait you're, leaving already?"

"Yeah, I told you my mom needed me later, and I don't want to keep you distracted when you have a job to do," She explained as she walked down the road.

"Well wait, hold on a second," I said as I walked up to Lyra and grabbed her shoulder to get her attention.

She turned to look at me with her chocolate colored eyes and I stuttered, "Um, uh, I was hoping we could still, you know h-hang out today… I mean it's my birthday and all, I wanted to spend some time with my best friend."

"Aw, isn't that sweet, little Goldilocks wants to hang with his best friend," She teased me.

"Damn it, you know what I meant. I didn't want my whole day to be an errand you know?"

"Chillax dude, I'm just pulling your strings" She smiled, "What were you thinking? Late night game night? Huh, I kinda like the rhythm of that." She then sang the words, "Late night, game night! Bring your friends!" She looked to me for approval to which I kinda gave her an awkward look, "Eh that sucked, gimme a week and I bet you I can make a fucking catchy jingle out of that... and then sell it for millions." she rubbed her hands together maliciously.

I chuckled after watching Lyra have her little moment and said, "A late night game night sounds fun, I'll bring my Switch and stop by your house tonight after I take care of Elm's errand."

"Oh bring your copy of Doom when you come over, I wanna rip and tear after I crush you with my husbando in Mario Kart." Her eyes had a flash of determination in them.

"Fuck you, and you're forbidden love of Bowser, seriously." I groaned as she gave me a teasing wink before I answered, "But, alright I'll bring Doom too. How about like 11:30ish tonight?"

"Sure thing," She smiled before she waved goodbye and started to walk home, "11:30, my house, be there or your ass is grass!"

"Bring it on, you little gremlin!"

"Fuck you Goldilocks!"

I stood there with the competitive gamer in me all riled up and ready to fight as we shared a few more of our favorite insults before she disappeared from view. When she was gone, I felt a light tug on my leg making me look down to see that Nile was peering up at me with his piercing red eyes.

He then chirped something at me, and I chuckled saying, "I hope that was something nice, cause I don't approve of you being a 'potty mouth,' if what Lyra says is true. I have a hard enough time with her foul language."

Nile then rolled his eyes at me and grumbled something.

"Did… did you just back sass me?" I said as I knelt down to look him in the eye, which I must have done too quickly or too suddenly because Nile hissed and snapped his jaws at me and I had to suppress my natural fight or flight response as I felt a jolt run through my body.

"Whoa there, I…. I didn't mean to scare you," I apologized as I tried to slowly offer my hand out to let him see I meant no harm.

However; when my hand came within reach of the blue reptile I was saddened to see him scoff at my offer and he looked away from me with his arms crossed.

"N-Nile?" I stuttered as I tried to pat him on the head only to hear a low, deep, threatening hiss that got louder as my hand came close and I drew it back.

It was clear to me that I had accidentally made him think I was making a threatening move toward him. I mean, I could see why he thought that, I did lean over him in sort of a towering way.

" _Man this is going to be harder than I thought. Nile's feeling must be be far more fickle than I had originally guessed."_ I thought to myself as the Totodile refused to make eye contact with me in a standoffish way. " _I need to remember that he was abused before he met me, I need to take it slow, and try to make him more comfortable being around me."_

"I'm… I'm sorry, I'm still new at this," I apologized to Nile, "I… I shouldn't have moved toward you so fast. I must've scared you, right?" I added as I slowly stood back up.

It took a few moments of indifferent silence from the water type, but I noticed one of his telltale subtle nods in agreement, like back when I was first interacting with him in the lab.

I cleared my throat and said, "Nile, you should know that I've never been able to have a Pokémon as a friend before. I only just got my license today and you're my first… I honestly don't know what's best for you, nor how to best take care of you." I confided in the reptile, "But if you aren't too mad at me, I promise to make it up to you and do my best to care for you, ok? You should know that I was telling the truth back there when I said I would never hurt you, so if I make a mistake and scare you again please know I don't mean to."

It took a while, but I saw him nod his head a bit more distinctly now, but still avoiding eye contact with me.

"Ok," I sighed with some relief, even with the thoughts of screwing up my first time owning a Pokémon hot on my mind. "Well, um, Nile, would you still like come with me to see Elm's friend? We could um… we could take the long way through town, you know so you won't be bothered by other people. Just you and me… whadda'ya say?"

Nile turned his head, and I saw one of his piercing red eyes stare at me before he gave me a weak yet hopeful smile and nodded his head in agreement.

This helped to uplift me, and I nodded back, and I carefully walked up to Nile to show him the way. Careful to approach him slowly.

* * *

With my blue hair wrapped up in a towel on my head and nothing but a pair of panties on, I strummed along my air guitar using my phone as a makeshift pick, singing, "Whoa! Yeah! Kickstart my heart, Hope it never stops!"

Steam from my recent shower poured into the hotel room as I kicked the door and exited the bathroom, playing away on my imaginary guitar as my phone blasted one of my favorite songs. As I began to sing the chorus I saw my Growlithe, Leonidas, whom I called Leo for short, pick up his head from off the nearby bed and he howled along as I sang the lyrics.

Coming up to the bedside, Leo came to me and began to headbang along with me like the crazy little rockers we were.

"Skydive naked from an aeroplane. Or a lady with a body from outer space. My heart, my heart! Kickstart my heart!" I sang, with Leo howling along as I went nuts anticipating the upcoming solo, strumming that fake guitar to my heart's content, "When I'm enraged Or hittin' the stage, adrenaline rushing through my veins, and I'd say we're still kickin' ass!"

It wasn't long till my favorite part of the song came blasting through my phone's speaker's, a funny bit that I swore sounded like a rubber chicken channeling his inner metal head. With all my exaggerated movements, I soon felt the towel around my head come loose and fall to the ground letting my damp, sky blue hair sway and flail around with my improv dance moves.

This was rather typical of me, a morning kicked off with a naked, air guitar session was sort of a tradition between Leo and I. It was by far my favorite way to get pumped and start the day, or late evening, whatever comes first.

As the song came to a close and I patted my fire pup on the head he barked in approval. But this adrenaline rush was quickly cut short when I heard a small groan of discomfort coming from the corner of the room. I turned to see the source, and to my dismay and slight disappointment, I saw my new Chikorita, Hibiscus, covering her ears in discomfort.

"Oh… um, sorry Hibiscus. Did we wake you up?" I said as held my arm a bit ashamed of rudely waking up the young grass-type, though I was also a bit annoyed that I had to feel guilty for something I liked to do.

My annoyance stemmed from the fact that I didn't exactly want to have a this Chikorita. I kinda wound up with her after I graduated the Johto Ranger Academy. I couldn't exactly say no when I was faced with a well-known professor offering me a gift in front of all my other graduates. Now I was stuck with her, and despite my best efforts, she was not a fan of most of my habits.

Walking over to the disgruntled little grass bud, I kneeled down and tried to comfort her. Placing a hand on the side of her face I said, "I'm sorry, I didn't know you were still asleep Hibiscus."

She blushed as she chirped out her displeasure toward me, I could tell she wasn't exactly comfortable with my nudity either.

I sighed, slightly irritated as I said, "Ok, ok, I know, I'm sorry I'm a loud mouth." I kinda rolled my eyes as I tried to come up with an apology for something I didn't exactly feel sorry for.

However, before I could piece together a lousy apology to make amends, I heard my phone ring. It was the specific ringtone I had set up for when members of the Rangers called me. Despite being somewhat saved by the bell on this one, I was quickly overcome with a sense of dread as I audibly groaned.

" _Oh god, it's probably Tyler, that numbskull just can't take a hint."_ I thought to myself as I rolled my eyes and I stood up, recalling regretful memories of a recent one night stand that was rather lousy.

After brushing my hair out of my eyes, I answered the phone without looking at the caller ID and spoke with a brash voice, "Tyler take a hint! That was a one-time thing, go find someone else you limp dick!"

A few moments of silence came past before I heard the distinct, gruff voice of my commanding officer, "Crystal, this isn't one of your recent failed boyfriends, this is Sergeant Anderson." His tone was that of immense disappointment.

Realizing who it was, I had to hold back a gasp as I almost instinctively tried to cover myself, feeling ashamed of being practically naked despite the fact the sergeant couldn't actually see me.

"Oh uh… S-sergeant Anderson… I'm so sorry, I didn't um… I uh…." I stuttered as my heart raced before I managed to calmed myself and said in a clear voice. "Th-this is officer Kris, good morning sir." I almost stood at attention to help sell my delivery for all the good it would do.

"It's two in the afternoon," He replied, the sound of disapproval laid thick on his words.

"Oh right, I'm sorry, today was my day off…. um sir." I tried to explain as I walked over to a window to peer outside, confirming it was mid-day.

"Crystal, I'm calling because I've received several reports of your recent assignments and I am not happy."

Clenching my fist, I tried to protest but was swiftly cut off as he spoke, "Four accounts of property damage in excess of 2 thousand dollars, several cases of suspects apprehended with broken bones and complaints of 'excessive' use of force... And finally, one act of public vandalism."

Feeling under attack, I interjected, "Ok, in my defense, the people of that city deserved to know what kind of asshole mobsters operated out of that building."

"You spray painted, and I quote, 'Bunch of fucking cunts' on a wall that faced the main street of Cherry Grove after apprehending three men guilty of selling fraudulent phones. Is this the kind of behavior you think the Pokémon Rangers are meant to display?"

"No, sir it wasn't like that, those bastards deserved it… I mean….just uh…." I exclaimed before slumping onto the side of the nearby bed and said, "No sir."

"Crystal, I am well aware that you have no ill intent in the methods you choose to complete your assignments. You are an inquisitive young trainer and one of the finest combatants among your graduating class, but just because the Pokémon Rangers are granted more leniency than local police to pursue law enforcement, does not give you the right to be reckless. Do you understand me?

"Y-yes, sir." I moped as I felt Leo nuzzle up against my side to try and comfort me.

It was then that I heard the sergeant address me in a less abrasive voice saying. "Look, Kris, you have a lot of potential to be a great Ranger, I've seen few recruits display your level of cunning and resourcefulness. But I must inform you that you are on thin ice." He paused as I felt his words sink in like that of a disappointed father. "I'm going to give you one last assignment, make sure you can pull it off with minimal collateral damage. Got it?"

"Oh, yes… yes sir! I can handle it! What's the mission?" I exclaimed with newfound conviction.

"Alright then, there's a farmer on the outskirts of Cherry Grove by the name of Mr. Fukima, and he is reporting that a Mandibuzz is terrorizing his farm. As of now, nothing serious has occurred, however; Mr. Fukima is worried that it will soon threaten the safety of his herd of Miltanks."

Confused I asked, "Did you say a Mandibuzz? I've never heard of that Pokémon before."

"I'd be quite surprised if you did, you may be familiar with most native Johto Pokémon thanks to your time at the academy, but a Mandibuzz is a Pokémon native to the Unova region."

"Unova? But that's like halfway across the world what the heck is it doing here in Johto?"

"We believe this is another case of avian Pokémon having their migration patterns altered by the Hoenn incident four years ago. When those ancient Pokémon fought and caused worldwide flooding and drought, it destabilized many natural systems such as sea currents and global jet streams. Although we believe most of these natural cycles have stabilized, our current theory is that some have been permanently altered leading to these odd cases of avian Pokémon appearing in regions they do not originate from."

"Whoa, that's pretty crazy, I was only sixteen when that weather disaster happened. It's crazy to think things are still affected by it."

"Indeed, we think this Mandibuzz was confused along its normal migration to Alola, and it wound up here. We hope this is an isolated case, but we fear that if multiple Mandibuzz appear in Johto, they will out-compete our native Pidgeots and Fearow without the presence of their natural enemy the Braviary."

"So you need me to capture it I assume."

"Yes, we are in the process of contacting the Rangers in Unova to have them send a team to receive and release the Mandibuzz back into its natural habitat. But in the meantime, you are the only Ranger in the area. We need you to subdue it and prevent any more damage to the farm. Can you handle this?" There was a feeling of contempt in those last words.

I paused for a moment before I gulped and spoke with conviction, "Yes I can do it! I won't let you down sir!"

"Good, get dressed and head out, I'll send you the details. Sergeant Anderson out."

"Right away sir!" I felt the urge to salute but realized it was a pointless gesture over the phone.

He then promptly hung up, and I sprung to my feet to get my uniform. I then paused as I thought to myself, " ' _Get dressed?' Did… Did he know I was naked?"_ The thought of that made me blush before realizing that it wasn't uncommon back in the academy for the Sergeant to find me in some rather compromising situations when I didn't quite report for duty on time. I then assumed he merely guessed, or was just absentmindedly telling me to put my uniform on and nothing more.

As I pulled out my Ranger's uniform from my bag, I announced to my Pokémon, "Ok guys we've got an assignment, get ready to head out!"

Leo gave me an eager howl of approval and Hibiscus trotted over to me and begrudgingly chirped, still groggy from her rude awakening.

"We can't screw this one up guys, I'm in some hot water right now, and I need this to go well. We're going to take this slow and be careful, alright?" I explained to the two of them as I donned a pair of black shorts with yellow trim and a black and white t-shirt.

I saw my Chikorita breath a sigh of relief at the words 'slow' and 'careful.' I could tell she wasn't a fan of my more bombastic methods ever since I got her and hearing me express my concerns for being cautious must have eased her. That, and me finally getting dressed must've also relaxed her too.

"We need to be on our toes today. If this Mandibuzz can tangle with Fearows and threaten Miltanks it must be one tough customer," I added as I put on the iconic red Ranger's vest, before I grabbed two scrunchies to put my hair down into pigtails, just the way I liked it.

Leo gave me an eager growl, excited by the prospect of a tough fight, Hibiscus was not so much. She quickly went from relieved to quite concerned and she chirped her displeasure to fighting a Mandibuzz.

"Look, I'd love let you sit this one out Hibiscus," I said to the grass-type as I fixed a red headband to my forehead with the Ranger's shield logo emblazoned on it. "But I'm going to need everyone's help if we're going to succeed, ok?"

Hibiscus rolled her eyes and she nodded in agreement, but still expressed her concern for the upcoming fight.

"Oh come on, it'll be fine." I tried to assure her, "Look, Leo is big and strong he'll make sure nothing happens to you just like always, ok?" I attempted to comfort her as I watched my fire hound, whom was roughly twice the size of my Chikorita, place one of his paws on her head and bark in agreement.

This helped lighten her mood a little, but I could tell she would much rather not be involved if given a choice. It was clear to me that this grass-type didn't like me as much as I would've hoped for. Once again I couldn't shake this feeling of being burdened with keeping this Pokémon around. But, the last thing I wanted to do was disappoint a former Ranger like Professor Elm by returning her.

I'll have to make do though, I had a job to do, and I wasn't going to mess this is up, not this time.


End file.
